This I Promise You
by LosingSpark
Summary: Zuko returns to the Fire Nation hoping things would be how they used to. But he's at a crossroads and a push from a new ally may finally help him to find his path *takes place after season 2*
1. Chapter 1

**A/N** : _Hello! Yet another new story... about damn time...lol... Anyways, the timeframe is going to take place right at the beginning of the Book 3... This is a Zuko/OC story... you have been warned!_

_I do not own Avatar The Last Airbender in any way, shape, or form!_

* * *

Zuko sat on his bed, feeling almost out of place in his own room. He had just been announced along with his title of "Prince" to a roaring crowd. And now here he was. He was home. What he had wanted for so long. So why did it feel so wrong? He back onto his bed, staring up at the ceiling. The out of place feeling was pounding within his mind and heart. Why was it? It was the same ceiling as it was when he was a child. Zuko let out a groan of frustration and rolled over. He shoved his hands down between the the mattress and headboard, like he did when he was a child. He jerked his hands back as it came into contact with something metal.

"What the?" Zuko asked, sitting up.

He yanked the pillows away, tossing them to the floor. He reached back between the mattress and headboard. He pulled his hand back, the metal clenched within his fist. He opened his fist up and stared down at the object in his hand in surprise.

**_~Flashback One~_**

_"Mother, where are we going?"_

_Lady Ursa smiled down at her young son. He stared back up at her, golden eyes curious._

_"We are going to meet a friend." Ursa told him._

_"Who?" Zuko asked._

_"You don't know them yet, but they have a daughter your age." Ursa explained._

_"If they have a daughter my age, why isn't Azula coming with up?" Zuko questioned._

_Ursa closed her eyes and took a deep breath._

_"Azula has Mai and Ty Lee, so I thought it would be nice for you to have a friend all to yourself." she told him._

_**~Flashback Two - a few weeks later~**_

_Ursa and Zuko stood at the outskirts of the city._

_"Come on mother! We're late!" Zuko exclaimed, running towards a house in the nearby clearing._

_"Relax Zuko. They are not going anywhere." Ursa told him with a smile._

_Zuko ignored his mother and raced towards the front door of the house. As he reached the door, it flung open._

_"Zukie!" exclaimed a voice._

_A yellow blur shot from the house, tackling Zuko down to the ground. Zuko growled and began wrestling the girl that had tackled him._

_"Sora!" yelled a voice from insdie the house,"How many times must I have to tell you not to tackle the young prince?"_

_"I'll stop when he beats me at wrestling!" the girl yelled back._

_Ursa laughed softly at the golden haired girl that sat triumphantly on her son's chest. Sora jumped to her feet when she heard the Firelady's laugh._

_"Hello Lady Ursa." she said,bowing._

_"Hello Sora." she replied, bowing back._

_"Mom's inside." she told her, her pale blue eyes sparkling with mischief._

_With that being said, Sora turned and grabbed Zuko's hand. The two laughed and took off down a path._

_The two lay in an empty field, staring up at the starry sky._

_"Hey Zuko, wanna see something cool?" Sora asked him, rolling onto her side._

_"Sure." Zuko replied, rolling to face her._

_Sora lifted a necklace over her head and held it out to him. He took the necklace and looked down at it. It was circular in shape, half of it was in the shape of a crescent moon. Zuko noticed some strange patterns within the moon, but didn't know what they were. A small section next to the moon, hanging from its point was the outline of a star. A glittering blue gem that matched Sora's eyes lay in the center of the star._

_"So what is it?" Zuko asked, handing the necklace back._

_"It's a necklace genius." Sora told him, sticking her tongue out at him._

_"I know that!" Zuko snapped._

_"I'm joking!" Sora told him, " My mom gave it to me last night. It's been in our family for almost 100 years! She said my love for the clouds and stars are more than I will ever know. It's in my blood! Whatever that means..."_

_"It means you're crazy." Zuko teased._

_"Oh yeah? I'm crazy?" Sora asked, her pale eyes gleaming._

_She rolled over and the two began yet another wrestling match._

As the memories faded, Zuko continued to stare down at the pendant. How did Sora's pendant end up in his room? She had never taken it off after the first night she had let him hold it. He found himself wondering what had happened to his old friend.

_**~Flashback 3 - a few months later~**_

_After his grandfather's death and his mother's disappearance, he and Azula were not allowed to leave the palace alone. Then a day came where there was a large commotion down in the front courtyard. The servents led Zuko and Azula out to their father. As they joined his side, they saw a large wooden pyre set up in front of them. Two wooden posts stuck up at the top._

_"Father... What is going on?" Zuko asked, his fear rising._

_"Silence Zuko!" he barked, his golden eyes darkening in anger._

_Zuko's gaze dropped to the ground as Azula chuckled. Ozai raised his face towards the gathering crowd._

_"Bring them out!" Ozai commanded, his voice echoing._

_Several guards brought two people forward. Zuko's eyes widened as he recognized them. It was Sora's mother and father! The guards shoved them towards the posts, tying them tightly to them. Ozai started down the stairs towards them, Azula right behind him. Zuko had no choice, but to follow._

_"These two are traitors to the Fire Nation. They helped Ursa to kill my father and then helped her escaped!" Ozai stated to the observing crowd._

_Zuko stared in disbelief. Yet he couldn't help, but wonder where Sora was._

_"You have a chance to spare yourselves from death today, but only if you tell me where she is!" Ozai told them._

_Sora's parents exchanged a soft smile. They turned their heads towards Ozai before spitting at his feet. Ozai narrowed his eyes and his mouth pulled back into a sneer._

_"Very well then. Burn them!"_

_The guards lit the pyre. Zuko could only watch in horror as the fire grew._

_"The traitors have chosen not to obey their Fire Lord and thus have committed acts of treason against us!" Ozai bellowed._

Zuko shook his head, trying not to relive that day. The night after the burning, Zuko had managed to sneak out of the palace. He raced as fast as he could to Sora's house. Or at least what was left of it. The rubble was still smoking. A knock jerked him from the painful memories.

"Prince Zuko?" asked a voice.

"Yes?" Zuko asked, turning to face the servant.

"Lady Mai is here for you." the servant told him timidly.

* * *

Despite growing up here and walking these streets everyday, these streets had never felt more foreign to Zuko.

"About time my father let us move back. The earth kingdom was dull." Mai muttered.

Zuko looked over at his gloomy companion.

"After what happened with my brother being kidnapped, he thought it would be in the family's best interest to be back here where it is safe." she droned on, "Can't say I blame him... At least something happens here."

Zuko felt differently. Although his first thoughts of the earth kingdom weren't the best, he had grown to like it. His thoughts drifted to his uncle. He knew that he had been locked up, but that was about all he had known.

"Zuko!"

Zuko jerked his head up, surprised to find Mai quite a ways ahead of him, looking annoyed. As he moved to catch up with her, she turned and headed into a building. Zuko sighed and followed her.

"Oh! Lady Mai! I will get your brother for you!" a woman said, walking into a back room.

"Why do I always get stuck picking him up from this boring place..." Mai sighed, looking around at the cluttered toys of the daycare.

The woman reentered the room, Tom-Tom with her. Zuko found himself staring hard at the woman. There was something about her. Her hair was long , a gentle brown in color, falling close to her hips. But that wasn't it. As the girl lifted Tom Tom to hand to Mai, her eyes glanced over at Zuko for just a second before darting back to Mai. In that second, Zuko knew those eyes.

"So...Sora?!" he stammered.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N** : _I am just on a roll with getting all these new chapters out! Go me!_

* * *

"So...**Sora?!"** Zuko stammered.

The brown haired girl held Tom Tom in her arms, doing her best not to drop the squirming toddler.

"Sora, is it really you?" he asked.

"Zuko, knock it off." Mai told him, annoyed.

"I'm sorry Lord Zuko, but my name is not Sora." the girl told him, keeping her head down.

"You look so much like her." he explained.

"She already said that she wasn't this Sora, so leave her alone." Mai hissed.

The gloomy girlfriend took Tom Tom from the girl and stormed outside.

"You best go apologize to her milord." the girl whispered.

Zuko gave the girl one last look. She may not have been Sora, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he knew her somehow. Slightly bummed, he headed out after his girlfriend.

* * *

"Mai, would you just wait!" Zuko called.

The girl ignored him and continued down the street at a quick pace. Zuko groaned inwardly. He really wasn't in the mood for the cold shoulder treatment from Mai. All he wanted to do was go back to his room and start looking into what had happened to Sora. After finding her pendant and seeing what looked like another version of her, his intrest had been piqued. He knew that her parents had been killed, but he didn't remember ever hearing about Sora being killed. A slamming door jerked him from his thoughts. He found himself infront of Mai's house, where she had gone inside and slammed the door in his face.

"I can't deal with this right now..." Zuko muttered, shaking his head.

Instead of waiting outside until she would let him in, Zuko turned and headed back towards the palace. He would deal with Mai's attitude later.

* * *

Zuko flung himself onto his bed, exhausted. He has spent the rest of the day and well into the evening digging through the archives in the palace library. Luckily for him, his father had kept a log of every person that had been thrown into prison or that he had killed ever since he had become fire lord. To his relief, Sora's name had not been on either list. But it hadn't given him any clue into what had happened to his childhood friend. He did learn that Sora's parents had not been registered as Fire Nation citizens. But then that led him to the question of how did his mother know them?

**"AHHHHH!"** he yelled in frustration as he held a pillow to his face.

"Awwww... poor Zuzu upset?" cooed a icy voice.

"Get out of my room Azula..." Zuko growled, not removing the pillow.

"And to think I actually missed hearing youy save that..." Azula smirked.

Zuko yanked the pillow from his face to glare at his sister who was leaning against the doorframe.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"Oh not much. Just seeing how my brother is doing."

"Yeah, right." Zuko muttered.

"I heard you upset Mai. And by talking to another girl who you thought was some other girl." Azula told him with a twisted smile.

"You heard wrong." Zuko told her.

"Oh I doubt that. You might want to go warn that girl so she doesn't end up with a needle in her neck."

"Get out of my room!" Zuko yelled.

Azula chuckled to herself as she strolled out of Zuko's room. Zuko got up from his bed and angrily slammed the door. He paced around his room, feeling overwhelmed. He just felt overwhelmed with everything. He didn't need Azula prying into everything on top of that. He fell back onto his bed, rolling onto his side. He stared at his bedside table where Sora's pendant lay. The candlelight dimly reflecting off its metal surface. He sighed before reaching out and grabbing the pendant. He rolled onto his back, staring at the strange symbols etched into the metal's surface. A sudden ping against the metal frame of his window caught his attention. He lifted his head at the sound, but after a few moments of not hearing anything, he laid back down onto his pillow.

"What happened to you Sora?" he muttered, rubbing his thumb over the pendant.

A sudden gust of window blasted his windows open. He shot up with his fists out, waiting for an attack. When no attack came, he slowly made his way over to the window. He stuck his head outside and was surprised to find that there was no wind blowing. He scanned the darkness surrounding his window, but caught no sight of any moment. He shook his head in confusion before turning around. His golden eyes widened as he caught sight of something. There on his pillow was a scroll. He stepped cautiously towards it and opened it slowly.

_Prince Zuko. You must not bring up Sora. It is better that you do not know what happened to her. The past is better left in the past. Just know that she always will be watching over you and guiding you in the right direction._

The scroll offered no name and no clues. He glared at the scroll angrily for a moment before setting the thing on fire.

* * *

Zuko stood in the shadows of the palace walls, keeping his eyes on the guards. When the guards turned to continued the patrol, the prince quickly snuck around the wall and into the darkness of the city. He quickly made his way towards the outskirts of the city and found himself walking down that familiar path of his childhood. He could almost see his younger self racing down the path ahead of him towards the small light of a house in the distance. The light from Zuko's memory slowly faded into darkness of reality. A few feet from where he stood... was nothing. What used to be a house was now nothing but grass. Time had healed the land from the burning it had taken. Zuko sighed and moved towards where the door had used to be. Zuko noticed a few footprints in the dirt that looked pretty recent. He lit his fist a flame and saw that they led towards the path that let to the field he and Sora used to play in. The grass had grown nearly as tall as himself as he grew closer to the field entrance. He also saw what looked to be a path made in the tall grass. He dimmed the fire before slowly making his way in. He soon found himself in the center of the field where a nice circle had been cut into the grass. In the center of the circle, sat two small wooden crosses. One had a wreath of flowers hanging from it, and the other had a wooden staff resting against it.

"You should not be here young prince." said a cold, but soft voice.

He spun around to find a cloaked figure standing behind him. Zuko jumped backwards, his fists flaring into flames. The figure held up it's hands, defensively.

"Relax. I will not hurt you." it told him.

"Who are you?! What is this?" Zuko asked, not lowering his fists.

"Merely a shrine to remember the innocent that have lost their lives for no reason." the figure said.

The figure took a step forward, causing Zuko to take a step backwards. The figure gave a soft sigh.

"Will you move so I can tend to the markers?"

Zuko stood his ground so the figure moved around him before dropping to its knees. It began pulling weeds from around the markers, ignoring Zuko completely.

"Who are you?" Zuko asked again.

"No one important. The real question is who are you?"

"What do you mean? I am Zuko. Prince of the Fire Nation." he retorted.

"Is that really who you are?" the figure asked.

"Who else would I be?" Zuko demanded.

"You have been gone for quite awhile young prince. A lot can change. Especially when one is exhiled for so long. "

"I haven't changed. I have done what I was sent to do. I found the Avatar and he is now dead!"

Zuko's voice waivered as the word dead escaped his lips. He didn't want to admit it, but he didn't truly believe that the Avatar was dead.

"A pity that the only hope for this world is now gone." the figure said sadly.

"He was a kid. He wouldn't have done any good!" Zuko told the figure.

"Kids are the future to this world. Change can only happen through them. Now hope for a new world is lost."

"There is nothing wrong with this world!" Zuko roared, annoyance building.

The figure slowly stood, turning to face Zuko.

"If there is nothing wrong with this world, then why must innocents die?" the figure demanded in a cold angry tone.

"You don't even know them! What do they matter to you?!" Zuko roared.

**SLAP**

The young fire prince's head snapped to the side as the figure struck his cheek. He could hear the angry breathing of the figure.

"How dare you!" the figure hissed, " They were two great people that had dreams of seeing some good come out of this pointless war that your father continues!"

Zuko's anger flared and he shot a fireball towards the figure. The figure easily dodged it and took a step back.

"Don't be like him." the figure warned.

"Stop talking to me!" Zuko yelled, firing off a few more fireballs.

The figure easily dodged them and lunged at Zuko, tackling the young prince to the ground. Zuko braced for impact against the hard earth, but found the impact a lot lighter than expected. The figure sat atop of him, pinning one of his hands down and the other cradling the back of his head.

"I cannot hurt you..." the figure said quietly.

Zuko's eyes widened at the figure's words. The figure let go of Zuko's hand but continued to sit ontop of him.

"What happened to you Zuko?" the figure asked, more directed to itself than to Zuko himself.

The figure slowly lifted its hand, reaching slowly towards Zuko's scar. Just as it's fingertips were about to graze his scar, Zuko snatched the wrist, holding it in an unbreakable grip. He sat up, grabbing the hood of the cloak with the other hand. He yanked it off the figure's head and found himself stunned.

"Happy now?" the figure asked.

Sitting on top of him, was the girl from earlier. The girl he had mistaken for Sora. He quickly let go of her wrist and the girl climbed off of him.

"Who are you?" Zuko asked, standing up, " So-"

"It's Torali." she told him coldly, interrupting him, " And I want to know why you are here prince."

Zuko found himself unable to explain why he was there. He didn't really understand himself. Maybe deep down he had secretly hoped that Sora would somehow still be here. The girl continued to stare down Zuko, her dark blue eyes narrowed.

"I knew the people that lived here..." he finally said.

The girl's eyed him for a moment, before giving a soft sigh.

"I know. Just wanted to hear you say it."

"What about you?"

"They were family." the girl replied, looking down at the graves, " I'm all that's left so I come here to preserve their memories."

"What do you mean all that's left? Are you actually So-"

"Will you stop calling me that!" the girl growled, " Sora is dead and gone!"

Zuko felt his heart sink as the girl blurted out her last words. Torali caught the pain in his eyes and sighed again.

"I'm sorry Prince Zuko. But she is gone. " Torali apologized.

"H...How?"

"Losing her parents broke her heart. And now she's gone."

Zuko didn't dare ask anymore. He didn't need to.

* * *

**A/N :** _Oh no! Poor Zuko! But who is this Torali that he has found?_


End file.
